SACRAMENTO  High-school students in the Pennsylvania suburb where I grew up jokingly referred to the local community college as the University of Newtown. Many of them got their start at that decent and cost-effective two-year school, but they knew that it wasn’t quite the University of Pennsylvania.

Increasingly, however, community colleges throughout the country are offering bachelor’s-degree programs in limited subject areas, such as nursing and automotive technology. When the Legislature reconvenes, Sen. Marty Block, D-San Diego, plans to introduce a bill allowing some of California’s 112 community colleges to join this trend. They won’t become universities, but they will offer greatly expanded credentials.

The idea is to provide additional college capacity for students pursuing career and technical education courses (as opposed to that sociology or history degree). Supporters say the BA idea also provides options for students who aren’t in a position to move elsewhere to attend a university. Others say expanded community college degree programs would reduce the lure of costly for-profit colleges that specialize in vocational-tech education, but often leave students saddled with debt.

Officials at the state’s university systems haven’t weighed in, but some people oppose the idea because it blurs the lines of the Master Plan for Higher Education, developed in 1960 to detail the roles of community colleges, California State University and the University of California. Community colleges would charge tuition rates for BA programs that are higher than the fees charged now, but less than the price charged by universities.

When my daughter sought a nursing degree, she found that it would take at least six years to get one at a Cal State campus, so she chose a pricier private school and was out in four. It was a frustrating and costly process given limited nursing-school slots, so I understand the problem. But some critics wonder whether community colleges are best suited to meet this demand given the problems they face handling their current mission.

As an example, the state’s community colleges have been reducing the number of career programs the past few years, according to an August study from the Institute for Higher Education Leadership and Policy at Sacramento State. When state dollars became scarce, these colleges may have disproportionately cut career-tech programs because they are costlier to provide than liberal arts courses, according to the report.

And in a 2010 study, the Institute found that 70 percent of community college students did not achieve degrees or transfer to universities within six years, suggesting that community colleges aren’t successfully moving students into the work force.

“The rates for transfer and completion are too low,” responded Jack Beresford, spokesman for the San Diego Community College District. “The biggest reason is that too many students coming out of our high schools have significant remediation needs … . I don’t think that enabling (community colleges) to grant four-year degrees changes that dynamic in either direction.”